Harish Rao Accuses Congress Government of Delaying Employee Health Scheme

BRS MLA and former minister T. Harish Rao on Wednesday accused the Revanth Reddy-led Telangana government of failing to implement the Employees Health Scheme (EHS) despite announcing its rollout and beginning deductions from the salaries and pensions of beneficiaries.

In a post on X , Harish Rao said the government had promised to issue health cards and launch cashless medical services for government employees, teachers and pensioners from July 15 , but had not released the operational guidelines required to implement the scheme. He also alleged that agreements with empanelled network hospitals were yet to be finalised, leaving the programme non-functional.

The former minister questioned the government's decision to deduct 1.5% of basic pay and pension from employees and pensioners over the past two months even though the health scheme has not become operational. He demanded that the deducted amount be refunded until beneficiaries are able to avail themselves of the promised medical services.

Harish Rao further alleged that several assurances made to government employees in the Congress party's Abhaya Hastham manifesto remain unfulfilled even after 30 months in office. He claimed that the government has neither constituted a Pay Revision Commission (PRC) nor released six pending Dearness Allowance (DA) instalments , while the promised abolition of the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) has seen no progress. He also noted that the government had initially proposed to launch the health scheme on June 2 before postponing it to July 15 , but implementation is still pending.

Highlighting the previous BRS government's tenure, Harish Rao said it had implemented two PRCs , granted 73% fitment , and provided cashless healthcare through wellness centres and empanelled hospitals without imposing additional financial burden on employees, teachers and pensioners. He claimed the earlier administration had also initiated measures to further strengthen the Employees Health Scheme.

Demanding immediate action, Harish Rao urged the government to issue employee health cards without further delay and credit back the deductions made before the scheme became operational. He also criticised what he described as the government's approach towards employees, alleging that it had failed to honour welfare commitments. Warning of a political campaign, he said the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) would launch an agitation in support of employees if the government continued to delay the implementation of its promises.